Global ad spend on news content is declining across all channels, according to WARC. The research firm forecasts news ad spend to fall to $32.3 billion this year – a 33.1% drop from 2019 – followed by a period of stagnation through 2026. By that year, WARC says user-generated content will outpace professional media in ad spend, leading to a decline in civic literacy and a weakening of defenses against misinformation.
WARC’s latest Global Ad Trends report examines the shift in advertising spend from professionally produced content to user-generated content and “creator journalists” willing to operate in digital platform ecosystems. It also investigates how news publishers are dealing with decreased ad spend and how they intend to better demonstrate the value of professional journalism in advertising effectiveness.
The report shows that the growth of online ad spend on news brands has decelerated since early 2022. The share of global ad spend going to professionally produced content currently stands at 51%, down from 72% in 2019.
According to WARC, advertisers are favoring influencer and creator content due to its low production costs, direct audience engagement and alignment with platform algorithms. Despite strong audience interest, serious news stories often go unmonetized due to brands’ use of broad keyword blocklists aimed at avoiding reputational risk. Instead of hard news content, they are opting to place ads next to softer content like sports and lifestyle.
Besides content concerns, brands are also turning to global digital platforms such as Google and Meta for targeted and scalable ads.
Platforms such as TikTok and podcasts are driving the rise of creative journalists, as is the rise of AI-generated content, which is also speeding this decline in ad spend, said Kate Scott-Dawkins, global president of business intelligence at GroupM, who added that professionally produced content is expected to account for less than half of content advertising spend next year.
“As spend from the long tail of advertisers continues to outpace growth from the top 200, UGC is likely to dominate even more,” she said.
Future growth, according to WARC, depends on first-party data, trusted environments and revenue diversification beyond ads, such as subscriptions and direct-to-consumer relationships. The report shows that 85% of executives agree that advertising is a good investment. However, 41% believe that security protocols should apply to all types of news.
The research also finds that news brands are investing in technology, AI and cross-platform strategies to attract advertisers. For instance, CNN has developed an AI tool that uses neurolinguistic analysis to assess brand suitability across various formats, including text, audio, video and galleries. Meanwhile, media agencies are adapting by introducing new metrics like “quality CPM” (qCPM) to better reflect the effectiveness of campaigns positioned against professionally produced journalism.
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